Weapons, words, and code - all means of changing reality. All, however, are sharp tools in that not only can they turn in your hands, but they'll do exactly what you tell them to - even if that's not what you meant.

March 13, 2007

Thank you for playing, Mr. Thurrott.

Paul Thurrott, never one to miss a deflating riposte at Mac news, informs us that Bloomberg ranking Apple #5 in retail shipments in 1/07 is a 'pointless exercise' because the scores don't count direct sales. As he reminds us, Dell (which is the number one or two producer of machines in the U.S.) sells only through direct, which is what makes this list (and Apple's placement on it) silly.

This may be true.

It should be noted, however, that the list reflects Apple's shipment of laptops through its retail points of presence. According to the Apple guidance conference call for Q4 '06, 54% of Apple's sales were direct and not through the retail channel.

This is also a meaningless number; we don't know whether that is in units, dollars, what sort, whether it was biased towards the December holiday, etc. On the other hand, it certainly means that the number of Apple laptops sold and counted in that Bloomberg study is less than the total number of Apple laptops sold and shipped in January '07, which also might have some impact on where Apple fits on the list.